Reliability

In theory, reliability should be one of the hosted e-mail provider's strongest suits, given an infrastructure devoted to e-mail that's typically broader and deeper than what makes sense for a single company to invest in for itself.
It's important to evaluate the processes that potential hosted e-mail providers have in place for ensuring reliability, to discuss the sort of SLAs (service-level agreements) with which these providers are prepared to back their offerings, and to see how these provisions and guarantees stack up against what you are prepared to provide in-house.

What's more, not all of the infrastructure that hosted e-mail services require lays in the hands of the provider. Most dramatically, the Internet link between you and your hosted e-mail provider can be subject to interruption, leaving your organization disconnected from a vital service.

As Editor in Chief of eWEEK Labs, Jason Brooks manages the Labs team and is responsible for eWEEK's print edition. Brooks joined eWEEK in 1999, and has covered wireless networking, office productivity suites, mobile devices, Windows, virtualization, and desktops and notebooks. JasonÃÃÃs coverage is currently focused on Linux and Unix operating systems, open-source software and licensing, cloud computing and Software as a Service. Follow Jason on Twitter at jasonbrooks, or reach him by email at jbrooks@eweek.com.